Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149470 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149470 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
“I hope so too.” Her eyes were bright with tears as she pulled away with the coat in her arms. “Thank you, Elli. I won’t forget you.”
“I won’t forget you either,” I promised. “I’ll come back to help you, if I can.”
Her face filled with sadness.
“Nobody can help me—this is my life now. I—”
But just then the booming gong, gong, gong, sounded again. Natalie’s eyes widened.
“Got to go!” she exclaimed. “And you’d better get back to where you came from fast! Sweepers will be here any second.”
“Okay.” I nodded and watched as she turned to run to the mouth of a far tunnel. She disappeared inside it and suddenly I heard a whish, whish, whish sound coming from over my head.
I looked up and saw, to my dismay, something that looked like a cross between a spider made of ice and a vacuum cleaner. It had eight shiny, clear legs and a fat, round body. Its head looked like one of those rollers covered in bristles. You know, the kind you see when you turn your vacuum over because you’re trying to unclog it? It’s the bristles that pick up the dirt and debris and sweep them into the vacuum’s sucking hole.
The weird spider-thing that Natalie had called a “Sweeper” had a similar arrangement, though the bristles on its roller mouth were clear, just like the rest of its body. It was like it had evolved to blend in with all the ice on this frozen world. It scuttled over the ceiling above me, its roller brushing crumbs into its open maw, which was located right below it and ringed in long, needle-like fangs.
It was a horrible shock—seeing a giant spider on the ceiling right over my head—and I couldn’t forget Natalie’s warning about being “chewed up” when I saw those deadly fangs. Was it going to try to eat me? Although it was the size of a Doberman Pincer, its mouth wasn’t big enough to suck me in…unless it ground me up with its long, sharp bristles, that was. Whatever its intentions, I had no wish to have a close-encounter with it. It was time to get the Hell out of there!
I ran for the ice elevator as fast as I could, throwing a look over my shoulder to be certain the weird spider-like ‘Sweeper’ wasn’t following me. It wasn’t, but now I could see more of them—a lot more, scuttling across the high ceiling. Oh God, I hated bugs—especially big ones! I needed to get out of here fast.
Anxiously, I pushed the call button for the elevator. Then I pushed it again…and again.
I looked up, trying to tell if the ice lift was coming, though it made me wince to see all the Sweepers scuttling over the ceiling. But for some reason the lift appeared to be stuck at the top on the Baron’s floor.
“Come on…come on!” I muttered, jamming my thumb into the button again and again.
Suddenly a little lighted message appeared over the button.
End Service it said.
“What?” I muttered, jamming the button some more. “What the hell does that mean? Come on—please!”
But no matter how much I pressed the button, the same message just kept appearing.
End Service, End Service, End Service…
Suddenly one of the Sweepers—a really big one, the size of a Great Dane—scuttled down the icy elevator shaft and came right at me. I gasped as it rushed towards me, pushing me away from the elevator and towards the doors at the front of the building.
“Hey! Ouch!” I protested, as the sharp bristles on its roller-mouth pierced my leg. They went right through all those layers I was wearing like they weren’t even there and my skin stung like fire where they stuck me.
“Hey, leave me alone! I don’t belong down here! I need to get back upstairs—to the top of the building!” I shouted, trying to keep away from the huge Sweeper as I was herded away from the elevator.
If the Sweeper understood me, it gave no sign of it. I thought of waving the Baron’s sigil in its nightmare of a face, but then I remembered I had left it tucked in the pocket of the coat I had given to Natalie. So there was no help there.
I thought of trying to get to one of the tunnel mouths, but the Sweepers were rushing at me from all directions now. I didn’t want them touching me again with there horrible roller-brush mouths or their long, chitinous legs and claws, so I turned and ran in the only direction I didn’t see any of them—towards the double doors at the front of the building.
Before I knew it, I was through the first set of doors and into the small area where Sir and I had taken off our face coverings. Thankfully, I was able to get the doors shut before any of the Sweepers could get into the small, enclosed space with me.